Fifty-eight different types of devotees

Expressions researched:
"fifty-eight different types of devotees" |"fifty-eight"

CC Madhya-lila

When we add the twenty-six types of devotees to these thirty-two, they altogether number fifty-eight. You may now hear from Me of further manifestations of meanings.

CC Madhya 24.294, Translation:

“When we add the twenty-six types of devotees to these thirty-two, they altogether number fifty-eight. You may now hear from Me of further manifestations of meanings.

The different names of ātmārāmas can be taken fifty-eight times.

CC Madhya 24.295, Translation:

“In this way, as I add the word "ca" to one word after another, I make a compound. Thus the different names of ātmārāmas can be taken fifty-eight times.

One can repeat the word "ātmārāmāḥ" with "ca" for each of the fifty-eight meanings.

CC Madhya 24.296, Purport:

In this way, one can repeat the word "ātmārāmāḥ" with "ca" for each of the fifty-eight meanings. By following the rule previously stated and rejecting all but the last, we retain that which represents all the meanings.

Fifty-eight different meanings can still be understood by the one word "ātmārāma."

CC Madhya 24.298, Translation:

When all the ca-kāras, or additions of the word "ca," are taken away, fifty-eight different meanings can still be understood by the one word "ātmārāma."

After uttering the word "ātmārāmāḥ" fifty-eight times and taking "ca" in a sense of aggregation, one may add the word "munayaḥ."

CC Madhya 24.301, Translation:

After uttering the word "ātmārāmāḥ" fifty-eight times and taking "ca" in a sense of aggregation, one may add the word "munayaḥ." That will mean that great sages also render devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa. In this way there are fifty-nine meanings.

Teachings of Lord Caitanya

If the words muni, nirgrantha, ca and api are applied to the thirty-two classes, then there are fifty-eight different types of devotees. All these devotees can be described by one word: ātmārāma.

Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 16:

Anyone who is engaged in the devotional service of any form or expansion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is also called ātmārāma. All such devotees engage either in the regulative principles of devotional service or in devotional service in transcendental love. These two groups of devotees are each divided into three categories: eternal associates, those perfected in devotional service, and those newly engaged in devotional service. Newly engaged devotees can be divided into two groups: those who have already attained attachment for the Lord and those who have not attained such attachment. When considered according to the two divisions of devotional service (namely due to attachment in transcendental love, and under regulation) these classes of devotees become eight in number. By following the regulative principles of devotion, the perfect associates of the Lord are further divided into four classes: the servants, the friends, the parental superiors and the fiancees.

Just as some devotees are perfected by the execution of devotional service, so some are eternally perfect. Of those following the regulative principles of devotional service, there are the advanced and the beginners, totaling sixteen categories; and in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, there are also sixteen types of devotees. Thus the ātmārāmas can be considered to exist in thirty-two divisions. If the words muni, nirgrantha, ca and api are applied to the thirty-two classes, then there are fifty-eight different types of devotees. All these devotees can be described by one word: ātmārāma. There may be many different kinds of trees standing in the forest, but the word "tree" describes them all.

Thus the Lord gave sixty different meanings to the ātmārāma verse. In addition, He said that ātmā means "any embodied living entity, from the first living creature, Brahmā, down to the ant." He cited a verse from the Sixth Chapter of the Viṣṇu Purāṇa in which it is stated that all the energies of the Lord are spiritual. Although this is the case, the energy which is known as the source of the living entity is called spiritual, but the other energy, which is full of ignorance and is manifested in material activities, is called material nature. Even in the material creation, the living entities are innumerable. If by chance a living entity in the material world can associate with a pure devotee, he can engage in the pure devotional service of Kṛṣṇa. "Formerly I thought of sixty different meanings for the ātmārāma verse," the Lord told Sanātana Gosvāmī, "but here another meaning has come to My mind by your association."